September 5, 2017

New camera can see through human body

<b>Scientists have developed a camera that can see through the human body.</b><p>The device has been designed to help doctors track medical tools, known as endoscopes, during internal examinations.<p>Until now, medics have had to rely on expensive scans, such as X-rays, to trace their progress.<p>The new camera …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed

September 3, 2017

Paul Schrader Received a Visit From the Department of Homeland Security for a Facebook Post About Donald Trump

As tends to be the case with Paul Schrader movies, “First Reformed” doesn’t sound like it’s for the faint of heart. Ethan Hawke stars as a grief-stricken ex-military chaplain, with Amanda Seyfried as a member of his church coping with the recent suicide of her husband. It’s currently making the festival rounds at Venice and Toronto, prompting the “Taxi Driver” screenwriter to talk about his latest project — and that time he was visited by the DHS earlier this year.

“I did get visited by Homeland Security this year because I posted something on Facebook about Donald Trump and the John Brown moment we are now in,” Schrader tells Variety. “So they came and visited me to ascertain whether I am a threat to the president’s life. I am not — except in theory. There is this sense in the world now that something must be done, and it’s tearing this character apart.”

He knows it may not be for everyone, but Schrader feels content now that he’s made this movie: “I can hang up my spurs and saddle if I want,” he says. Read the full interview here.

Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

‘Star Wars’ Q&A From 1976 Is a Reminder of a Time Long Ago When Blockbusters Didn’t Yet Rule the Galaxy — Watch

Though it’s synonymous with blockbusters now, “Star Wars” was far from a guaranteed success. Anyone who’s ever doubted that would do well to avail themselves of a half-hour Q&A session about “Star Wars” between Mark Hamill, producer Gary Kurtz, and marketing director Charles Lippincott held six months before George Lucas’ space opera changed movies forever. Watch the full conversation below.

It took place at MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention, which was held in Kansas City in 1976. Among the topics of discussion: the idea of model-makers and other special-effects technicians going the way of the dodo — there wasn’t much work for them at the time, says Kurtz, and so some of them “may get out and become encyclopedia salesman.” Suffice to say they were wrong about which career ended up lasting much longer, which “Star Wars” obviously had a huge part in.

More than 40 years later, the franchise continues with this year’s “The Last Jedi” and the upcoming Han Solo/Obi-Wan spinoffs.

Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

‘Nightwatch’: Spike Lee Could Be in the Running to Direct a Standalone Superhero Movie in the ‘Spider-Man’ Universe — Report

As the many cinematic universes of comic-book franchises continue to expand, unexpected actors and filmmakers continue to enter the fray. Edgar Wright directing “Ant-Man” proved too good to be true, but previews for Taika Waititi’s take on “Thor: Ragnarok” and Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” inspire more confidence than the average superhero jaunt.

According to Jeff Sneider’s “Meet the Movie Press” podcast, we could be getting an even more appealing director/subject pairing: Spike Lee directing a movie about Nightwatch.

Known among us non-heroes as Dr. Kevin Trench, Nightwatch has one of the more out-there origin stories: He sees a masked man die in a fight and, upon unmasking him, learns that it’s an older version of himself. Sneider says he’s “very confident” in the rumor that “Now You See Me” scribe Edward Ricourt is penning the screenplay to the standalone film, which takes place in Sony’s “Spider-Man” universe (as does the upcoming Venom movie); Lee directing the movie is still just a rumor at this point, however.

Tom Hardy will star as Venom in the upcoming spinoff, which will be somewhat unconventional in its focus on a villain rather than a hero. That film has no release date as of yet, while the Nightwatch movie is still in the earliest stages of development.

Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

‘Victoria & Abdul’ Review: Judi Dench-Starring Historical Drama Is Only Half a Story — Venice

Stephen Frears’ “Victoria & Abdul” is an otherwise benignly toothless, pleasantly glossy affair, but it does force us to confront one tricky question: When treating a subject as fraught as British imperial rule, when does a film’s benign inoffensiveness become offensive in and of itself? Still, that’s about the only food for thought in what is at once a breezy, lion-in-winter vehicle for Judi Dench in queen-mode and a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Noble” bit of wealth porn, and not much more.

Dench is back as Queen Victoria, returning to a role she had previously played in John Madden’s “Mrs. Brown,” a film that must have not only inspired Frears and screenwriter Lee Hall, but acted as their foundational text. Little is known about the very real relationship that existed between the aging monarch and her advisor Abdul Karim, and so Hall has essentially grafted their story onto a broad strokes retelling of Madden’s 1997 film. In both versions, an underling servant grants the withdrawn Widow of Windsor a new lease on life, much to evident displeasure of her numerous attendants, political appointees, and children. Swap out the Scot John Brown for the Indian Muslim Abdul, fast forward a few decades and here we go.

The film picks up on the unhappy queen as a prisoner of her own court. Trapped in an endless cycle of luncheons, ceremonies, and royal visits, Old Vic seeks solace in food. Every day brings another ornate banquet, and every banquet brings countless lavish courses. The rich preparations are about the only thing worth paying attention to, at least until she locks eyes with Abdul (Bollywood star Ali Fazal, though recently of “Furious 7”).

A lowly prison clerk sent from his native Agra to present the queen a coin, Abdul brazenly breaks protocol by staring the Empress of India in the eyes. And yet it seems to work out. She warms to his moxie, speaks of his good looks, and takes him on as her right-hand man, at least until the protocol-rigid chamberlains complain about a commoner spending so much time with the ostensible most powerful woman on Earth. So she makes him a royal advisor, there to teach her all about the entire subcontinent where she has long ruled if never actually stepped a foot, and life is sweet again.

“Victoria & Abdul”

That sweetness is laced into the very character of the film, which wants to be taken as a light confection. We breeze through all the royal real estate, marveling at the opulent décor. We titter at Dench’s withering put downs and saucy asides, grateful to see a venerable performer doing what she does best. And we snicker at those upper class power dynamics, familiar to all thanks to the seemingly endless deluge of aristocrat-dramas that have proliferated since “Downton Abbey” and are all over our aunts’ Netflix feeds.

When one obsequious doctor tries to cure the queen’s constipation, he uses the incredible formation “perhaps the royal colon could stand a bit more roughage.” We smirk. That’s the kind of movie “Victoria & Abdul” wants to be.

Except, it can’t be, thanks to that damned question of colonialism, the legacy of which is still being felt today. In the film’s formation, both Abdul and Victoria are innocent actors, two parties on the far extremes of a troubling system run by callous white men (represented here by the likes of Eddie Izzard, Michael Gambon, and Tim Pigott-Smith). But that structure never stands up because the film never grants the slightest interest in Abdul’s perspective.

While Dench gets a number of speeches and confrontations, dramatizing Victoria’s position as both all-powerful and basically powerless, Fazal is just asked to smile. Abdul is good-natured and charming, happily there to serve. He’s eager to teach her Urdu, or recite from the Koran, much to Victoria’s delight and her advisor’s dismay, but what’s going on inside his mind? What’s it like to go from the basement of colonial prison to a seat of Imperial power? Well, aside from the fact that he seems to appreciate the wallpaper, we never really know. The film is called “Victoria & Abdul” but it only ever lives up to one half of its title.

You can’t really make a pro-colonialist film in today’s political landscape (and thank god for that!), but by refusing to confront the real historical factors that make an essential part of the plot, “Victoria & Abdul” comes awfully close.

Though painted in a sympathetic light, Abdul is only ever used as tool both in the film’s plot and construction. By lavishing him with praise and attention, the queen is able to needle her scheming, racist coterie. By showing how earnestly devoted he is without stopping to ask why or what that would mean, the filmmakers essentially treat him as a prop in a white woman’s road to awakening. Despite a number of frilly charms, the film uses a figure of an oppressed class as a pawn in the larger games of the oppressors, and never stops to consider who he is as a person. There’s a name for that.

Grade: C-

“Victoria & Abdul” premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It will hit theaters on September 22.

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Source: IndieWire film

September 3, 2017

Angelina Jolie Speaks to ‘Very Dark Time’ in Current Culture at Telluride Panel

At this year’s Telluride Film Festival, the “Wonder Woman” effect continues to send ripples throughout the industry. Case in point: Saturday’s hugely attended “Wonder Women” panel, moderated by director Peter Sellars and boasting a panel that included actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie, lauded chef and restaurateur Alice Waters, tennis champ Billie Jean King (the subject of the Telluride premiere “Battle of the Sexes”), and actress and filmmaker Natalie Portman.

Jolie was at the annual Colorado film festival to bow her latest directorial effort, “First They Killed My Father,” which debuted the night before the panel. It will be available on Netflix later this month, after screening at TIFF next week.

In our review, Eric Kohn praised it as being “a more focused, involving work than any of her earlier efforts, a taut wartime tale about surviving the Khmer Rouge that’s rooted in a child’s perspective rather than a simplistic, westernized gaze. Despite a few missteps, it’s the clearest illustration of her filmmaking talent to date.”

Jolie, who has long been outspoken in her political beliefs and currently serves as a Special Envoy to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, spoke out about the “very dark time” unspooling in current culture. For Jolie, the parallels between the current political climate and other historical instances that have seen countries and groups devolve into hatred (and worse) was top of mind, as her latest film is centered on the true-life stories of Cambodian refugees who were massacred by the Khmer Rouge.

“First They Killed My Father”

The film is based on the non-fiction book of the same name, penned by Loung Ung, who was just 5 when Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. As Jolie noted, that horrific period of history is “not unlike even some situations we can recognize today: there’s a country [arming itself] on the border; there are bombs that enter the country; there’s a vacuum left; ideologies rise; hate rises; and [there’s] a lot of lies and encouraging people to come together and rise up against outside influences.”

She added, “But in doing so, they are also rising up with a certain kind of ideology that is very hateful and aggressive.”

As horrific as the experiences of Ung and her family were, Jolie also pointed out that not only did Ung survive, she has thrived, and in one of the few places where a displaced immigrant could accomplish so much: America.

“She was forced into labor camps. But she and some of her brothers and sisters survived, and she is extraordinary, and she came to America,” Jolie said. “And this morning I heard her thank America for embracing her as an immigrant and explain how much she hopes she has given back to America, and remind us all what is the best of America.”

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Source: IndieWire film